Giffords Circus behind the scene (34 images)

Giffords Circus behind the scene during their performance of ‘Any Port in a Storm’ in the grounds of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, May 2017. A show dedicated to Nicole Marchegay, the maternal grandmother of Toti Gifford, including: Nell and Toti Gifford (producers), Cal McCrystal (director), Tweedy the Clown, David Pillukat (master of ceremonies), Sergii Poliakov (gymnast and acrobat), Maria Madrid Trigo and Alejandara Castel Lazaro (flamenco dancers), Dany Cesar...
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Giffords Circus behind the scene during their performance of ‘Any Port in a Storm’ in the grounds of Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, May 2017. A show dedicated to Nicole Marchegay, the maternal grandmother of Toti Gifford, including: Nell and Toti Gifford (producers), Cal McCrystal (director), Tweedy the Clown, David Pillukat (master of ceremonies), Sergii Poliakov (gymnast and acrobat), Maria Madrid Trigo and Alejandara Castel Lazaro (flamenco dancers), Dany Cesar and Attila Csilo (horsemen), Alina Shpynova (Venus and acrobat), The Sol Troup (the King’s gymnasts), Dany Reyes (juggler), Viktoria Murtinova (singer), James Keay (leader of the orchestra), the Mustache Brothers (gymnasts and clowns), and Yasmine Smart (horse trainer, haute école, and granddaughter of Billy Smart). Also Takis (costume designer), Andy Purves plus Tom Cox (lighting and sound designers), and Louisa Birkin (production designer). Nell Gifford read English at Oxford University before running away to the circus, including the Chinese State Circus, Santus Circus in France, and Circus Roncalli in Germany. In 1999 Nell married Toti Gifford and the two of them founded Giffords Circus, initially with just a small tent and an old children’s roundabout from Trade It Newspapers. Now Giffords is a well-known and very successful circus that tours London, the Home Counties and further afield, recreating magic from an era long past, evoking a tradition once common in the English countryside, reflecting a glamorous facet of the 1930s. In Josser, Nell Gifford’s autobiographical paen to circus, Nell concludes that “There can be no greater dedication to art than the lives of the circus people. Their entire existence, for ever, their family life, their up-bringing, their relationship with their children, husbands, wives, in-laws, animals, all these things are an expression and a result of their dedication to their work, their art, and their own peculiar culture”. Giffords Circus is a beacon in this complicated, closed and dedicated circus world. Photographs by Andrew Lyndon-Skeggs, www.anlsphotography.photoshelter.com May 2017.
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